Exam 9: Communicating in Teams and Organisations

A major engineering firm has introduced virtual teams around the globe to resolve client emergencies.Although some of these emergencies are routine (they occur often enough that the engineers have ready-made action plans),several are novel.Furthermore,information about the client emergencies often comes second-hand from employees of the client,so some of the details are missing or ambiguous.Although the company plans to eventually offer a variety of communication media that these virtual teams can use,engineers are currently limited to email,telephone,fax machine,and an instant messaging program that was recently introduced.Based on your knowledge of media richness,how can this engineering firm maximise communication effectiveness with the existing resources in this situation? Your answer should briefly define media richness.

Which of the following communication media tends to be best for transmitting emotions and persuading the receiver?

The image used in the communication process model is that information is like fruit on a tree that needs to be picked.

Explain why communication is an important instrument for organisational learning and decision making.

A large national sales organisation has concluded that active listening is a critical factor in successful sales and customer satisfaction.The company now wants you to design a training program that teaches sales staff the main components of active listening.Discuss a specific training activity that would potentially improve the salespeople's performance in each of the three components of active listening.Your answer should also briefly describe the three components of active listening.

Metaphors and other types of ambiguous language are useful when:

The common headshake (moving our head from side to side)has the same meaning across cultures.

Effective communication potentially improves knowledge management and decision making.

The responding stage of active listening includes showing interest and clarifying the message.

The most obvious cross-cultural communication challenge is:

Management by walking around:

Which of these statements about non-verbal communication in Japan is TRUE?

Which communication channel is most effective when the sender wants to persuade the receiver?

Research suggests that effective workspace design mainly balances the trade-off between:

Flaming refers to the capacity of an organisation to transmit information more quickly through computer networks than through traditional paper media.

Omitting and buffering strategies help employees to reduce the amount of information they must process (i.e.information load).

Communication is an essential part of the coordination process.

An important factor in choosing the best communication channel is its media richness.What does this concept mean and what two conditions require a communication channel that is high in media richness?

The CEO of Bear Securities Ltd is concerned that investment analysts and brokers at Bear Securities are using too much jargon to communicate with each other and with clients.The CEO believes that the use of jargon will result in costly communication errors and may intimidate clients.Discuss the accuracy of the CEO's concerns.

Media richness refers to: